Customer Reviews

Night of Flames: A Novel of World War II

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was gripped by this tale from the first page! It is beautifully written and impeccably researched, weaving a heart-stopping and sensitive tale of the experiences and heroics of common people during WWII. The focus on Poland and Belgium lends this WWII story a unique flavor, and the strong main characters take you right along with them across war-torn Europe and into the depths of the tenatious resistance movements. Fascinating story, talented story-telling. Can't wait for the sequel! Highly recommended - not only for historic fiction enthusiasts, but anyone who wants a good read!

I love good historical fiction, and while this has many redeeming feature, it also has a fatal flaw. The author tries to cover too much territory in way too few pages. The book covers all of WW II in 379 pages. Never going to happen. The book is at its best when in focuses on a single event - for example the beginning which deals with the Nazi invasion of Poland and the cities of Warsaw and Kracow. Or the end, which focuses on the battle for Antwerp (well, hardly a battle in the end). Here, Douglas Jacobson gives both color, detail, and strong narrative to the events. Unfortunately, between these two bookends, the characters are thrown all over Europe, over a period of five years, and the book rather meanders without any good purpose. The ending is also contrived. It is a first novel, and a good start. Perhaps next time Jackson wil focus more, deal with a small number of characters around a single defining event, and become less difuse and less scattered. Easy, enjoyable read nonetheless.

Right from the first page, Night of Flames thrusts the reader dead center in the middle of the German assault on Poland and never lets up. Anna Kopernik is a college professor from Krakow, her husband, Jan, is a cavalry officer and their lives will never be the same. Rising from the ashes of defeated Poland they each make their own way over the next five years in a desperate struggle against the overwhelming power and brutality of the Nazi oppressor. Theirs becomes the fight of the common people of Europe, who vow never to yield until they have taken back their lives and their humanity. As sweeping in scope as Winds of War and as intense as Eye of the Needle, this is one of the best World war Two novels in years.

Night of Flames, by Douglas W. Jacobson, is a novel about World War II, and more specifically, about the Belgian resistance movement known as the White Brigade. The story is told primarily through the eyes of Jan and Anna Kopernik, a young Polish couple who is separated thoughout much of the war but each plays an important role in the resistance effort.

The book opens in Warsaw, Poland in September, 1939, with Germany carrying out mass air raids on the city. Anna, a thirty-something university associate professor, is visiting Warsaw from Krakow with her Jewish friend Irene and Irene's 10 year-old son Justyn. When Warsaw is bombed, the travelers flee home to Krakow only to find it has suffered the same fate. With the help of an Italian diplomat, Anna, Irene and Justyn obtain travel visas out of Poland.

Meanwhile, Anna's husband Jan is an officer in the Polish army. In the beginning of the book, the army suffers crushing defeat at the hands of the Germans. Many of Jan's comrades are killed, including his best friend, who is also Irene's husband and Justyn's father. When Poland surrenders to Germany, Jan escapes to Britain, where he is recruited to work in the resistance movement.

The book then skips ahead to 1943, and the author introduces several members of the Belgian resistance. They are ordinary people - husbands, wives, and sons united in a common desire to reclaim their country from conquering Germany. Some are country peasants and merchants, others are urbane intellectuals. Anna, now living with Justyn in rural Belgiam, serves the movement by helping fallen Allied aviators out of occupied Belgium. Jan moves about Europe, doing espionage for the White Brigade.

Night of Flames is a plot-driven novel that delves deeply into a little-known facet of World War II: the Belgian resistance movement. Much of the story recounts various operations carried out by the movement. Throughout the novel, the reader is in suspense about how the efforts of the White Brigade will play out. Will the movement be crushed, or survive to play an important role in the Allied invasion?

Jacobson brings history alive with vivid details that convey the increasing desolation of war. The sound of air raid sirens and the ensuing panic. Polish infantrymen sprinting across an open field that is being strafed by Germans. A group of university professors polishing off what they know will be their last bottle of cognac for a very long time.

As the novel unfolded, it was impossible not to wonder about the fates of Anna, Jan and other members of the White Brigade. Of course, it could not end well for every character. Who would survive, and who would not: it's a question that prevails in almost every war story. Anna and Jan lost so many of the people they cared about, and in their search for one another, kept missing each other; Jan would end up in a place Anna had been a few days after she had left.

Night of Flames is sure to interest anyone who enjoys historical fiction, specifically that relating to WWII, while the imagery and suspense employed by Jacobson, as well as his diverse cast of characters make this a novel that may appeal to an even larger audience.

I did enjoy this book overall, as I am a WW II fan and love books relating to that era. I especially liked that the focus was on the Polish and Belgian resistance, two movements which have gotten little attention in movies and literature.

However, while I started out with five stars for this book, it has dwindled to 3 by the time I reached the end. This could have been a fantastic book but unfortunately, the author fell victim to trying to squeeze in too much and to using absurd coincidences and contrivances to wrap up the story.

1) As others have said, there are too many characters and too many small subplots. I could not keep track of the characters, and after a while, the names began to blur. All too frequently, a character would be introduced and then disappear, for no apparent reason.

2) It would have been preferable to focus on either the Belgian or Polish underground, or at least, just one or two activities that were going on. The book skipped from Poland to Belgium to England to France, with an unending array of activities, meetings, and characters. It became repetitive after a while, and towards the end of the book, there were so many "co-stories" going on, I just began to skip pages and then entire sections. The espionage became tedious because it seemed like the same thing was just being retold over and over again, only with an onslaught of yet new names added to the roster.

3) As others have said, a major problem in this book were the main characters Jan and Anna. Both were about as interesting as a slice of Wonder Bread, and not particularly likeable. Jan was completely void of emotion, and for an ordinary cavalry officer, he certainly appeared to have super powers. The man was indestructible. Anna lacked basic common sense and also was blessed with minimal emotions. Throughout the book, people keep referring to Anna as having strength and resourcefulness, but that is never apparent. Rather, it is amazing that she was able to survive.

4) The author resorted to ridiculous coincidences and situations to wrap up the story. Most idiotic was the SS officer's infatuation with Anna. We are told that Anna is an attractive woman at the beginning of the book, but as war drags on, Anna's long hair is cut short, becomes mixed with gray, and her face "very thin." In other words, the woman is aging from the hardships and probably doesn't look so good. But yet, when she is arrested, Anna had been transformed into a gorgeous woman, and the SS officer is totally mesmerized with her beauty, and becomes psychotically attached to her. If this story line wasn't ludicrous in and of itself, Anna gets her freedom when the SS officer's assistant decides to help her and kills several of his own comrades. And he "sees the light" after a five minute soul searching chat with Anna. It was so silly and contrived that it made me wince, and I nearly gave the book two stars because of it. Surely the author could have thought of a more realistic way for her to escape.

5) The character of Irene and her son Justyn was never really explained, or their purpose for even being in the book. It just seemed that the author needed to throw in a Jewish person, being that this was WW II, and the token "child in distress." Irene is introduced as Anna's friend, and it seems that she is the wife of a soldier who serves with Jan. Since Anna has only been married to Jan 2 years at the start of the story, it would seem that she hasn't known Irene very long. But yet, she is fanatically devoted to this woman and her child, for reasons that are completely unexplained. To the point where she would not leave Poland if Irene and Justyn can't come with her. Of course, if Anna stayed, she would be arrested and be deported or executed, and that wouldn't do much for Irene, but nevertheless, Anna will not leave them.

Irene seems more like a 10 year old child, and is completely void of any personality. In fact, Anna acts like both Irene and Justyn are her children that she must protect and care for. What is also bizarre is that Irene appears to have no family or friends other than Anna. She doesn't seem to know anyone in the Jewish community, and is oddly oblivious to what is happening to Jews in her city. Anna also seems to have no friends other than Irene, or relatives other than her father. Jan also appears to have no family--he never seems to wonder if anyone he knows in Krakow or elsewhere in Poland is alive or dead, other than Anna.

Irene's sudden pregnancy is also contrived and stupid, as is her death--which happens when they are escaping, of course. I almost stopped reading at that point, as it was so idiotic. Justyn the orphan (father also dies in battle) serves no purpose in the rest of the story, and adds nothing to it.

6) The ending is again a ridiculous coincidence, of how Jan and Anna meet up again. They've only been separated for 5 years, and somehow the chips fall exactly in place, and here they are together.

It is really a shame that a good editor didn't sit down with the author and tighten up the story and bring the characters to life. And make it less predictable. You could tell what was going to happen in many places almost immediately.

For a nice easy/escape read on an airplane, this book is good. The story keeps you going. But if you are looking for a literate historical fiction, you may be disappointed. The dialogue in this is often drivel (there are times you will surely wince), the coincidences at times ridiculous, the character development thin, and very little description/feel for place which is what makes this genre so rich, is lacking. Read all of Alan Furst's work first (no one comes close), then when you can not live without this genre any longer, this will work.

This is not 5 star material.

The first thing that struck me about this book was the pedestrian nature of its language. It contained no voice. As I flipped to the acknowledgments, I feared I had purchased a vanity publication. As I stayed with the book, I realized that I was wrong.

The events described in this book are so god awful, and even more so because they happened, that anything but flat language would not have done them justice.

This is a just the facts m'am story of the invasion of Poland and the ripples and riptides that tear through the lives of people involved in that criminal act and its awful aftermath.

The plotting is all over the place. Characters are drawn haphazardly, sometmes from the stock of every war novel, and, sometimes with great effect. What is a constant is the narrative which gives you a safe seat from which to witness humans at their best and worst.

I sent this book to an uncle (in his 80s, a vet of WWII, Korea and Vietnam) who swore the guy who wrote it must have been there. I sent another copy to a niece (in her 20s, college student, world traveler) who blew a weekend's studies because she couldn't put it down. Moral: Whether you're 80 or 20, you'll like this book; but wait for a weekend to start reading.

"Flames" takes you on a new journey through WWII. When the first bombs fall on Warsaw, university professor Anna Kopernik begins life on the run, first to her home in Krakow and, failing to find her husband or father, on to Belguim where she joins the resistance. We see the war through her eyes, and the eyes of her husband, Jan, a Polish cavalry officer who searches for her as he carries out missions with both British Intelligence and the Polish resistance. As the war-world of Anna and Jan becomes real to us, we feel the fear, smell the explosions and admire the courage of ordinary people who put their lives on the line to help others survive.

The story keeps you wanting to know how it comes out, even though you know how the war ended. For those who remember those times it is a reminder of the great courage and fortitude of those who lived it. For those not old enough to remember - it is a true and moving insight into a part of history that took place in fairly recent times and maybe will reinforce our desire not to have history repeat itself.

It is a lesson in history along with a love story -- love of country and family. The characters may be fictitious but we can identify with them and the history is true and vividly represented. It is a great read for everyone!

I disagree with the reader who thought Jacobsen tried to cover too much territory in one book. In fact, I thought Jacobsen handled the transitions from one part of the war to another with considerable skill. Thing is, he wasn't trying to give us a complete history of WWII, fascinating as that might be. He was telling the story of one couple -- Jan and Anna -- and their friends and families -- and he did it extremely well. The book is impeccably researched, taught me a few things I didn't know, and brought a horrible period of history to vivid life. RECOMMENDED.